✦ ✦ ✦
Which meant…
…that Gobta actually won.
✦ ✦ ✦
“It is settled! The victor is Gobta!!”
Ranga’s proclamation was almost drowned out by the cheers and applause from the ogres. Gobta soaked it up for a moment or two.
Man…
Gobta, of all people, dominating a warrior-lord lizardman? I figured Gabil was B-plus or so, and he was down in one stroke.
I had to hand it to Gobta. He’d matured. I was shocked, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one.
“Well done, Gobta,” Ranga said as he nodded approvingly. “I always knew you had it in you.”
“Yes!” chimed Rigurd. “Excellent! You have shown the world what hobgoblins are truly capable of!”
“He might just be right,” Shion observed. “I think I’ll forgive what you said a moment ago after all.”
“A masterstroke,” Benimaru said. “You have grown stronger than when we last fought.”
“Indeed,” Hakuro said, eyes sharp and focused on Gobta. “Quite impressive. I wonder how he may respond to further training.”
Damn. Being complimented by the likes of Hakuro? This day might just change Gobta’s life. If that old taskmaster of an ogre sage saw potential in him, I was all for it. It’d help divert Hakuro’s attention away from me in training, at least.
Though… Wait a second. Was everyone else here expecting him to win? I took another look around—and that was that vibe right now. I was the only one who doubted him.
Better make amends for that. I knew how to read a room.
“Um… Yeah, good job, Gobta. That blew me away! I’ll make Kurobe start on your weapon before nightfall.”
So what about Gabil and his lizardman entourage?
The warrior lord had no external injuries. He was knocked out but otherwise unaffected.
As for his men, they had been frozen in place before they even had a chance to form a cheering section. They still had no idea what had just happened.
“Hey, uh, we won, okay?” I yelled at them. “And I gotta turn down the offer, too, all right? If you want help fighting the orcs, we’ll think about that, but for today, you mind leaving us in peace? And don’t forget to take him with you.”
That was enough to stir them to action. And with that, our attempts at a cross-species summit were over.
✦ ✦ ✦
I was happy to see that idiot go, really, but we still needed to formulate a future plan. I gathered us together in a small hut I had built next to the largest lodging quarters in town for meeting purposes, ordering Rigurd to call for everyone else we needed.
“I will summon them at once,” he said, sending Gobta out for them as I used Thought Communication to get Soei over.
Most of the town’s important figures were there. Among hobgobs, there were Rigurd, Rigur, Rugurd, Regurd, Rogurd, and Lilina. They were joined by the dwarf Kaijin and the ogre mages Benimaru, Shuna, Hakuro, Shion, and Soei. Twelve in total, not counting me, and they encompassed most of the town’s managerial duties, apart from production.
✦ ✦ ✦
Kaijin represented the town’s building and production interests. Lilina handled management, and Rigurd, Rugurd, Rogurd, and Regurd were the top political brass. Rigurd was in charge, and the other three were his ministers, although I hadn’t assigned them concrete duties yet—better get on top of that. Benimaru and Hakuro were our military, Soei our intelligence, and Rigur our security.
✦ ✦ ✦
This meant our government now consisted of six departments, with the military and covert-ops sections newly founded by me. We were still weak as an organization, but it had worked well enough so far. Once the framework was in place, it’d be easier to fill out the details over time. For now, at least, we had roofs over our heads and food in our bellies.
Thinking about it, Rigur was doing a damn good job for us all. The grease on the wheels, I suppose.
Benimaru was deliberating over who to recruit for the army. I heard he and Rigur were discussing a list of possible candidates they could take from the security detail. Which was good. I’d only just appointed him, but I would need some action on that fast, what with the orcs and lizardmen running around. It was a heavy burden to place on Benimaru, but I was sure he’d do his best.
Lilina was a hard worker. Quick-witted, too. She was our city manager of sorts, but in terms of her duties, she was mainly responsible for our agricultural efforts. She had picked up some wild potato plants and succeeded in cultivating them. They grew quickly and provided a great deal of nutrients, which did wonders for our food situation. She was also involved with things like taming magical beasts for livestock and building fish hatcheries—a pretty decent range of projects. This was in addition to managing all our stocks—the things we made, the resources we harvested, the materials we gathered. The secretary of agriculture, forestry, water, and livestock, all in one.
We were still small, which was what made that possible, but going forward, we’d have to adapt with the times. If we started building trade relationships with the human race, I’d love to pick up some vegetable seedlings from them. By then, Lilina would probably have too much on her plate, so I’d need to appoint more managers.
The rest of the goblinas were pitching in, too, learning sewing from Shuna and so forth. We had a lot of winning people among them, Haruna included. I figured we were in good hands.
On the architecture and production front, I was still leaving well near everything to Kaijin. He was trained as a blacksmith, but after collaborating with Kurobe, he had kind of drifted upward to the position of floor supervisor. They had divided their workload pretty well, as I saw it—Kurobe at the forge, Kaijin working on new ideas. “We’re still pretty busy putting everything together,” he told me, “but once things settle down, I’d like to devote myself more to creative things.”
I had a feeling Kurobe would be joining him before long, once the current wave of weapons production wrapped up. Hell, I wouldn’t mind joining them, even. But before that, I just needed things to—as Kaijin put it—settle down.
✦ ✦ ✦
Once Soei returned from his latest recon trip, the entire gang was at the conference room. Time to kick this off.
With my signal, Soei began his report. It was generally divided into three parts—the state of things in the other goblin villages, what was going on in the marshlands, and the orcs’ advance. Each area had two Soei clones devoted to it, nimbly gathering intel. A few were still out in the field, rooting around for more.
We all fell silent, listening to his tale.
First, the goblin villages. Most had affiliated themselves with Gabil, warrior lord of the lizardmen.
Ah, the one who just paid us a visit. They’re following that idiot? Fickle bastards.
The goblins who refused to this had run for the hills in a state of panic, several attempting to flee to human territory. No one gave them much of a chance at survival. It was one thing if they lived in humble forest villages in uncharted lands, indeed another if they crossed the border. It’s natural for anyone to want to keep their homelands protected, and the humans would undoubtedly give them no quarter.
I didn’t know what kind of firepower the nearby humans had, but I was sure it’d make quick work of exhausted goblin stragglers. Which meant the goblins had little choice but to live hidden in secrecy, which didn’t exactly paint a rosy picture for their future.
Soei had some more information on Gabil for us, too. He had apparently gathered the fighter goblins from the assorted villages to assemble a force some seven thousand strong. They were now camped at the foot of the mountain range near us.
Quite a number. They had accepted the exact offer given to us—safety against the orcs, in exchange for whatever food resources they had. I suppose it was the best decision, but with all their food in the hands of others, they were doomed to starve, regardless of how the orc battle turned out.
It was completely careless, really—thoughtless of the village elders who agreed to the proposal. Guess they figured it was better than getting their heads caved in by an orcish ax. Or were they betting that a substantial number would survive the war? That there’d be enough to keep going afterward?
It was something we all would have to consider, too. This town wasn’t complete yet, but I couldn’t bear the thought of abandoning it at this point. If we let the orcs invade this far in, they’d ransack the surrounding forest and make it hard to keep ourselves fed.
If we wanted to retain the lives we enjoyed now, we’d have to repel the orcs—and repel them at the marshlands, not here.
✦ ✦ ✦
Speaking of the marshes, the lizardman chief had been summoning some armies of his own. A force of ten thousand had already been assembled, safe and well-fed from the fish in nearby Lake Sisu. They were holed up in a maze of natural caves and caverns, ready to resist an orcish siege for as long as necessary.
So they thought the orcs were that much of a threat, then? The lizardmen, a strong bunch of fighters despite Gabil’s little display, were already in a state of near-total war preparedness—to the point where they were even recruiting the weaker goblins.